AGERPRES special correspondent Oana Ghita reports: Romania is pleading, beyond the accession to Schengen with the air borders, for a clear deadline, as soon as possible in 2024, for access to the free movement area with the land borders, with a clear mechanism for the transition from air to land accession, political sources told AGERPRES on Friday.
On Thursday, President Klaus Iohannis and Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov met with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer. The meeting took place at the invitation of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the sidelines of the European Council meeting in Brussels.
So far, the sources said, Austria has only put forward proposals on air borders, and even “backtracked” on its position, no longer wanting to discuss accession with the land borders next year or the link between the entry with the air borders and the one with the land borders
Austria’s gesture is seen as “insufficient,” as the country’s motivation is to get rid of as many migrants as possible from its territory, this being one of the conditions set for the decision on the airspace accession.
According to the European Commission, the Schengen airspace cannot be opened and the entry with the land borders be left uncertain. In this context it is “absolutely necessary to have a very well established sequencing” and defined in the agreement between the parties involved.
Romania’s approach, say the quoted sources, is based on President Klaus Iohannis’s conviction that Romanians who, in very large numbers, come or go abroad by car and spend a lot of time in traffic and at the border, like carriers, must be particularly supported.